Oscars Tonight

The Oscars have a perception issue when it comes to being "too political" but it is not based in reality in my opinion. The speeches in recent years are barely different from the ones that were delivered in decades past; the same bland platitudes keep getting repeated, but some people have just gotten it into their mind lately that this time the winners are being "political," and everything gets interpreted through that lens.

If anything, the Oscars would benefit from *actually* being more political. Where are the Marlon Brandos sending up fake Native Americans to refuse awards on their behalf? People think the Oscars are political now ? Does the name Sacheen Littlefeather ring a bell?

I feel like a lot of this is ignoring the main issue. Adults in this country have stopped going to see movies made for adults, and would rather just infantalize themselves by watching nothing but franchise movies and films made for children. It's true that the Oscar nominees/winners are no longer box office hits, but that's not because the Oscars have become more stuck up in what they support; it's because audiences have. Best Picture winners like Terms of Endearment, Out of Africa, Platoon, Rain Man, Dances with Wolves, Forrest Gump , were all huge hits at the box office. None of those movies would be as popular now, because people refuse to go see anything they are not already familiar with. Being part of a "cinematic universe" is more important then whether or not a movie is actually good.

Edit: Social media has definitely taken some of the appeal out of awards shows as well. It used to be that these were one of the only times a year you could see these celebrities. Now you have people posting on Twitter and Instagram every day, and it takes the mystique out of Hollywood to an extent. When the AFI did their ranking of the greatest movie stars in history, twenty years ago, who was Number 1 on the female side? Katherine Hepburn, who famously eschewed the publicity machine and refused to do most interviews, giving herself an air of mystery that most stars today lack. Something to think about.